Happy Valentine's Day

My first sweet daughter made me this lovely peanut butter filled chocolate covered bites for Valentine's Day!  She knows the way to my heart!  Recipe soon.  (But don't hold your breath, it won't be that soon.) 

New! Modified! Dark chocolate molasses cookies (still gluten free)

You may remember these wonderful cookies.  Thank you Vegan 8!  I decided to lighten them up a little (and I love them even more...).

PLUS, I made them into cookie bars--that means I am more likely to make them 'cause they are EASIER. We all need EASY,  right?



What did I do?

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use a little extra like 1-2 tablespoons if you like it darker)
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoon ground flaxseed
2/3s cup pure maple syrup (use up to 3/4s of a cup if you like it a little sweeter)
2 tablespoons almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free)
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips 

(I basically doubled the recipe, but instead of doubling the almond flour, I added the normal amount and then added a cup of oat flour. I didn't double the chocolate chips--they are good, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and I was trying to lighten these a little.)

(Also, I made my own almond flour and it was pretty coursely ground so there were a few (small) almond pieces left.)

1.Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone pan liner (I love the reusable nature of silicone!).

2. In a small bowl, add the syrup and whisk in the flax seed and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, oat flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt together. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Next, stir in the molasses, almond butter and vanilla into the  flax seed mixture and mix well. Pour over the flour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes until it all comes together and thickens up. It should be sticky and thick. If it is on the runny side, add a touch more flour (your choice--mine was super thick so I didn't need to worry about this at all).

5.  You can either make into cookies (see the original recipe) or roll it out into a nice rectangular shape on your cookie sheet. Roll it to about 1/4 inch thin. Bake for 9-11 minutes, let cool, and then cut into bite size pieces. (Or whatever size you prefer.)

6.  Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies

See the other very similar recipe, too.  

My niece came to visit. Whenever she comes we cook a lot! She likes good food and I like to cook. She likes to cook, too. Win, win, win!


I found this recipe right before she arrived and I knew I had to make it!  I love molasses.  I love it with dark chocolate!!  And ginger!  (Hrm, is that foreshadowing a change I might make to the recipe in the future?) My niece is gluten-free so I love finding fun new recipes to try with her!

Here's the recipe as Vegan 8 created:

Ingredients

    • 1 cup blanched almond flour (for a nut-free option, see note below)
    • 1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
    • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

    • 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
    • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
    • 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp creamy almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free)
    • 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    • 1/2 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips

(Note
To make this recipe nut-free, you can use raw, unsalted sunflower kernels and grind them up in a food processor into a fine flour and use that in place of almond flour. For this option, increase the flour amount to 1 1/4 cups sunflower "flour", as it tends to be lighter in baking. Use sunbutter in place of the nut butter.)

Instructions

1.Pre-heat an oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, add the syrup and whisk in the flaxseed well and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour (or sunflower), tapioca, baking powder, cocoa and salt together and whisk well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Next, stir in the molasses, almond butter and vanilla into the reserved flaxseed mixture and mix well. Pour over the flour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes until it all comes together and thickens up. It should be sticky and fairly thick. If it is on the runny side, add a touch more almond flour.  Add chocolate chips.

5. Drop by large spoonfuls onto the prepared sheet pan and slightly smooth/spread out the batter with the back of the spoon to about 2 inches wide, about 1/4 inch tall. This will ensure even baking. Make sure to space each cookie 1-2 inches apart from each other, as they will spread a lot when baking. They will be large and beautiful! Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cracked on top and slightly firm. I took mine out at around 9 minutes. They will crisp up while cooling. If you prefer them a bit crispier, cook for another minute or two. Cool 10 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack.

The original author recommends making them into sandwiches with almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free) in between 2 cookies. Keep them stored in the fridge to hold the sandwich shape best!

My notes:
The cookie dough is VERY sticky. I only was able to bake about 10 cookies per sheet. I doubled the recipe. I used almond butter.  I did not use blanched almond flour, I just made almond flour in my blender with regular almonds. Next time, I may try using a little oat flour by adding another 1/4 of a cup of flour to the recipe.

(Some other thoughts) I may use some of the almond "goop" that is frozen in my freezer and adding a little oat flour to counteract the extra liquid. I would like to add some dried ginger to these cookies as I think it would give a nice zing. (I probably won't put ginger in all the cookies as my husband and one of my daughters don't like it.)

I doubled the recipe and I'm glad I did. We loved the cookies!  I'll definitely keep doubling it! Next time, hopefully I'll get some pictures. I made the cookies really fast on Sunday morning before we went to the beach and I forgot to take picts. Note these are EVEN more awesome when they sit in a container and get warm and then you take them out at the beach and they are very soft and the chocolate is melt-y! We liked these so much we never got around to making them as little cookie sandwiches.  I bet they'd be awesome!

Another dessert: Brownie Bites

This time from Dreena Burton. I love all the recipes she's created (that I've tried). They contain whole foods, no added oils, usually not too much sugar, and are EXCELLENT.

Kira took this picture on her Dad's birthday. He requested these for his birthday treat. (I had made them 3 or 4 times since finding the recipe.) The recipe has been approved by several non-vegans, so if you're looking for something healthy and tasty, I highly recommend it.  It's gluten-free using oats and almonds as the flour. We don't avoid gluten, but it's nice to have some delicious recipes in your back pocket for times when needed. We all seem to really like the combination of almond and oat flour.

Here's the recipe copied from Dreena Burton's site with my (very slight) modifications. (I increased it to make slightly more dough and changed some of the proportions. For example, I cut some of the almond flour (proportional to the recipe), increased some of the oat flour, and decreased the sugar slightly. I probably increase the chocolate chips, too with my method of making the bites. I also just use my food processor, no mixer like she does, to make this recipe so my instructions are different from hers.)

3/4 cup pitted dates
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tbsp almond butter or other butter of choice (cashew butter, peanut butter, etc)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup almond meal
1 1/4 cup oat flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp (rounded) sea salt
3-4 tbsp non-dairy chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (not 350). In your food processor, place dates, maple syrup, almond butter (or other), and vanilla and process thoroughly so it's a smooth mixture with very few date chunks. Next, add almond meal, oat flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Process until mixture comes together. The mixture will be sticky, and that’s the idea. These are dense, brownie-like cookie bites. 

I made VERY big brownie bites with this recipe and got 18 that were probably 2.5 tablespoons of dough. I put in 2-3 chocolate chips (actually mine are chocolate chunks) in each bite as I form the bites (I have to actually form the bites with my hands to get them to stick together).  I baked for ~14 minutes.

If you make smaller bites (1 tablespoon or so), then bake for less time ~12 minutes. Make sure to use a slightly cooler oven (325 is recommended) so that the more delicate almond flour doesn't burn. 

 
A picture from an earlier batch with gooey chocolate!  

Peppermint Chocolate Brownies (no bake)

These are so easy!  And so very good!

I found this blog over the holiday break and when I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it!

http://mywholefoodlife.com/2014/12/21/no-bake-peppermint-brownies/

And now I can't stop typing exclamation points!

2 cups pecans
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup of dates (I soak sometimes and sometimes I just add a little water to the mix)
1/4 cup cacoa* powder
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

Food process the pecans and chocolate chips.  Add the dates, cacoa powder, salt and peppermint.  Process until smooth. Spread the brownies into a pan lined with parchment paper. Chill and then serve.  (I always stick mine in the freezer for 10-15 minutes 'cause I can never wait for them to chill in the refrigerator.)

Bad picture below.  We had a whole 8x8 pan filled and this is all that is left a few hours later (teaspoon included for scale). I'm happy I have 3 growing girls to keep me from eating these all by myself! 

 

*I use cacoa (raw) when I make no-bake goodies.  I use cocoa (processed) when I make baked brownies and baked chocolate goodies. I do think both the no-bake and the baked taste better with the raw or cooked respectively.  

Mini! Cute! Tasty!

Inspired by these cute little muffin containers and being obsessed with this pumpkin recipe, I decided to make muffins as "cookies" for our holiday baking.

 

 

 

 

Note, the nutrition facts don't include the pecans on top, or the chocolate chips.  I found that I made about 2-2.5 dozen muffins for the recipe.

Hearty Cookie #2

Mine weren't nearly as ooey goey, but they are delicious! I didn't make the homemade PB chips, so I stuck in twice as many chocolate chips. I definitely classify these as breakfast cookies. The girls are delighted for a new breakfast treat (definitely will work for travel!), but they ate them this afternoon, as a snack--no problem.

Here are the stats for 1/15th of the recipe.  I'll try to make each cookie slightly smaller next time.

1 cup dates
1 medium ripe banana
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
1 cup almond meal (ground from raw almonds)
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Soak pitted dates for 10 minutes and then stick them in your food processor.
Add banana, salt, vanilla, and pb; process them into the mixture.
Add oats and almond meal.

Put the mixture into a bowl and add the chocolate chips.
Form into cookies and bake at 350 (in a preheated oven) for15-20 minutes.  Mine were so big that they needed 19 minutes. (I let them go until 20--still good.)

 
Raw

 
Raw

 

Cooked

 Cooked

Here's a link to a hearty cookie (#1). The pb in the new recipe makes the cookies taste very different from the first ones.  

Pumpkinspiration!

I was inspired by Oh She Glows, but knew I needed to change a few things, 'cause that's what I do. Here's what I did.

Wet Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons ground flax mixed with 4 tablespoons water (make and set aside mix in after 5 minutes or so)

• 1 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin purée (1/2 a can)*

• 2/3 cup of maple syrup

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, ground into a flour 

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats

• 1 cup almond flour (not almond meal)

• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (for enhanced binding)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

• 1 -2 tablespoons cinnamon (we like cinnamon, so we use more!)**

• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon allspice
(or use your favorite pumpkin pie spices, in the amounts you like--you can add clove if you like it) 

Yummy stuff (aka as optional, but it's the YUMMY stuff) 

• 1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped

• 4 tablespoons non-dairy chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper

• Mix flax egg in a small bowl or mug and set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes.

• In a large mixing bowl, mix the pumpkin and maple syrup 

• Pour in the flax mixture (should be thick) and vanilla extract and mix

• Mix the dry ingredients (all of them)

• Add in the Yummy stuff.

• Spoon dough into prepared pan and spread out until smooth and even. The dough will be very sticky, but this is normal. (Tip from Oh She Glows: I like to cover the dough with a piece of parchment paper and roll it with a pastry roller. I didn't do this step.)

• Bake for 20-35 minutes (I baked for 35 minutes)(the original recipe said 15-20 minutes, but I changed a few things). Next time, I might stop at 32. It's done when it has a good texture to the touch. 

• Place pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, lift out and place square directly on cooling rack for another 10-20 minutes, until cool. (The bars will crumble slightly if sliced warm, but they firm up nicely when cooled.)

(Tip: I put the whole almonds into the rolled oats I was grinding to make my own almond flour. Do it in two batches in your Vitamix (or other high powered blender) if you're doing this.)

We all really liked this. 5 out of 5 of us give it a gold star! (I left the pecans out of 1/2 because I wasn't sure how girls would react, but 4 of 5 of us like the pecans.) 

I'm going to play around a little with the recipe and try making it with whole wheat flour. We like the gluten free, and I love having gluten free options to make for friends who need it, but we also like the gluten around here. I'll keep you posted on any new variations. Pictures hopefully soon--we just killed off the first batch, in less than 24 hours, but I'll make this again.

 

*I had 1/2 a can left over and needed a recipe for it. This recipe can be paired perfectly with the cornbread recipe I just posted or you can refrigerate the other 1/2 a can and make the recipe again in a couple of days, or freeze it for later if you need more time between baking sessions.

**I've switched to Ceylon Cinnamon. It's the true cinnamon and may have more health benefits than the cassia cinnamon. It's got a milder flavor and I like to use more. If you use cassia cinnamon you may not want as much.

Granola!

A while back I posted this recipe for Chocolate Granola. Super yum! However, it was high in calories (and fat) (as granola usually is). I decided to lighten it up a little so that I could eat mass quantities of it and not feel guilty.  Lots of oat-y goodness.

3 cups rolled oats
1/2 ground flax
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup raw or processed cocoa
5 tablespoons water (more if needed)
2 tsp  vanilla extract


Preheat over to 250 (if your oven can go that low) or 300.

Put the oats, flax and sea salt in a bowl and mix.

Mix the maple syrup, cocoa, water, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl to insure the cocoa is well-incorporated.
Pour the liquid over the dry mix and mix well.
Spread the granola over a baking sheet covered with parchment or a silicone liner.
Bake for 10-15 minutes and stir. Bake for another 10-15 minutes.
I like my granola a little "crunchy" so I tend to turn off the oven and let it sit in the hot oven for another 5-10 minutes. (Nick doesn't like it as well when I do this, he likes his a little softer--to each his own.)

This granola is super with dried strawberries. If you don't care about the extra calories, add some dark chocolate chips. (If you want to send it into another out-of-this-world dimension, add some walnuts to the mix and bake, but when you do, you get more fat and calories.)

 

This picture is from the other granola recipe, but they look similar.  I'll try to get a new picture soon.

Homemade thin mints

A few days ago, I found this recipe. I knew I needed to make it. The Sweet Life's recipe was very simple:

2 sticks (1 cup) vegan butter (I use Earth Balance buttery sticks)

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour

You start with whipping the butter and powdered sugar, then add the cocoa, salt, vanilla extract and whip until smooth. After, slowly add the flour and mix well. I love a recipe where I can use my Kitchen Aid and not worry about over beating!  I suggest reading the Sweet Life's Recipe instructions if you want better directions.

Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick.
Cut the cookies out with round cookie cutters.
Place on baking sheets on either parchment or a silicone pan liner.
Bake for ~12 minutes.

Cool.

Dip in melted chocolate. Melt 1 and 1/2 bags of dark chocolate chips (what it took for us to coat our 30 very large cookies), 2 teaspoons peppermint extract, and 1.5 tablespoons vegan butter.

Melt the 3 ingredients together in a double boiler, after your cookies are cool.  (I stuck the cookies in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour.) I placed each cookie in the melted chocolate and carefully removed it with a spoon. I had to scoop some more chocolate on some and smear it around carefully. I let the cookies harden on wax paper and stuck them in the refrigerator.

Next time I make them, I stick some peppermint extract in the dough, too--not much, probably 1 teaspoon to get a hint throughout the cookie. Also, next time, I'll have a smaller round cookie cutter.

These are very good cookies. They are not healthy in any way. (Happy birthday to me!)

But first, Brownies!

I will get back to Thanksgiving Recipes, but I had a little left-over pumpkin puree and needed to use it up.  I found this recipe for chocolate pumpkin brownies and had to make it. I guess, I had to modify the recipe and then make it.  Here's what I did.

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup canned pumpkin (or pureed pumpkin or sweet potato)
1/4 cup flax
1/4 cup milk of choice
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips (not optional)

Combine dry ingredients, and mix well. Combine wet ingredients, then mix into dry. Pour into a silicone (or greased) pan. I used my 9x9, but an 8x8 would have been better. Cook for about 15-20 minutes at 350 F.  (You'll probably need to cook little longer if you use an 8x8 pan.)

Notes: 

Just a teeny bit of pumpkin flavor (I think sweet potato will be nice, too). I think I'll use cashew cream for fat (instead of flax or oil) so that I can get a smoother, less hearty tasting brownie.  With the flax, these are hearty brownies. I don't think brownies are traditionally hearty.

Square Pie? Pie Squared?

I decided I wanted to make a pie crust for our pumpkin pie that didn't involve flour. I'm not a huge pie crust fan. One of my daughters is though, so, on Thanksgiving, we'll have traditional pumpkin pie for her. For me and the two other little girls, we're trying some new things. Today, we experiment!

I took this recipe from Straight Up Food

&

this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie (this was for a very small amount of pie crust)

and combined them into:

15 dates (the 365 brand from Whole Foods that come in a bag, I don't know what kind)
3/4 cup of oats
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
3/4 cup of walnuts
1 tablespoon soy milk (or as needed)

Process the dates and walnuts until pretty smooth, then add the cocoa and walnuts. After the mixture is processed determine if you need the soy milk (it should be pretty darn sticky). I needed about a tablespoon to get it to a good texture.

Press into a pie pan.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350.

On the Straight Up Food blog, there are instructions on how to roll the pie crust out and transfer it into the pan. This method did NOT work for me. I rolled on a silicone sheet, but I couldn't get it to come off in one piece. It was okay; I just mashed the pieces back together in the pan. I was going to use my round glass pie pan, to make the pie, but I didn't think the crust would EVER come off of the glass since the mixture really stuck to the silicone. I opted instead to use my square silicone baking pan, instead and that's why we have a square pie (I'm buying a round silicone pan right now!)

For the pie filling, I made (mostly) this recipe from my blog; but of course, I changed it! No oil! Less tofu! Cashew cream!

Here's what I did this time:

1 package of silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cashews
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
2/3 cup maple syrup

(optional chocolate chips)

Add cashews, maple syrup and tofu to the blender. (Drain as much of the liquid from the package of tofu as you can (easily), but you don't need a tofu press or anything like that.)  Blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips, and blend! (I don't feel I can get a good texture from my mixer, so I just use the blender. Plus, if you're using cashews you need the blender and why dirty up more bowls/appliances?)





















Scatter chocolate chips on the crust. Here's what my scattered chocolate chips looked like:

Pour the filling on top.


Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Here are the nutrition facts for 1/12th of the filling (I think it would make 2 pies if I had pie pans.) Note, these nutrition facts do NOT include the chocolate chips or the pie crust. Often times, I make pumpkin pie with no crust. I always include the chocolate chips, but I lie to myself and tell myself that chocolate is medicinal and that calories don't count in medicines--but that's just me. 

The results?

The girls love it and I like it! I think it's a little too sweet and will do a version with less maple syrup. The texture was GREAT; I'm still debating about how I feel about nutmeg. The crust was good; definitely what I'd use for an "everyday" crust--lower fat, healthier, but I might try with more walnuts and less or no oats for Thanksgiving. Truthfully, I like pumpkin pie filling on top of chocolate chips best. 

(Despite the review, note, I've eaten a lot of this pie--going to spend some time on the treadmill. Heh.)

Currently, the plan is: one pie like this--er, with more walnuts and less oats in the crust; one pie with regular crust and no chocolate chips; one with regular crust and chocolate chips; one with chocolate chips, less sweet, and no crust. We'll see if we need more than 4 pies.

Edited to add:
I liked this crust, but am not sure I love it and I didn't end up making it for Thanksgiving.

sweet! breakfast bar! (edited recipe on 9/28)

Scroll to the end for the final recipe for breakfast bars! Read the whole post if you want.

Note, this recipe isn't quite ready for prime time, but if you're not afraid of cooking "by feel" it's fun! Our wonderful nanny found this recipe. I thought it sounded delicious and knew it wouldn't be hard to make vegan style! The ingredients are great!

When I made the recipe, the batter for the cookies was REALLY soppy. (I don't know if that's a good word, but it's the one that comes to mind.) I made one tray of cookies and then decided I didn't want to make cookies because of how wet the batter was so I poured the soppy batter into a 9 x 11 pan, lined with a sil-pat, pan and baked it. After ~50 minutes at 350 (covered with foil for a good deal of time) I had a VERY moist cake-like creation.  My 9x11 pan wouldn't have been big enough if I hadn't have made a tray of cookies.  (Next time, I may use my 8x8 and 9x9 pan, each lined with a sil-pat for the double batch recipe.)

The cake-like creation was DELICIOUS and I knew it would make a great breakfast bar. (Store in the refrigerator and heat up--nibble on the cold pieces as you wait for the microwave to warm it; 20 - 30 seconds can be a really long time!)

Next time, I'm going to add more oat flour (maybe double) to see if I can't get decent cookies out of the deal. These were way too gooey as cookies. Very tasty, but way too gooey. I wonder if I'd started with a sweet potato and cooked it from scratch if it would have been better and less moist. Someday, I'll try that, but for now, this is easy and tasty!

4 cups sweet potato puree (2 cans)
1.5 cups oat flour
1/2 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)
1/2 cup flax (made into a really big flax egg with 1/3 warm water)
1/3 - 1/2  cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons Organic Raw Cacao Powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon clove
3 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

(The most important ingredient)
~2/3s a cup of chocolate chips

The girls liked the cookies and the "cake." They have a perfect fall flavor! Nick (husband) commented that there was a molasses taste--maybe a little--but there's no molasses, but that might be fun to try sometime. Kira commented that they tasted a little like gingerbread. Tia was convinced that these were my pumpkin muffins. I admit they were similar. (I like chocolate in desserts; if it doesn't have chocolate it's not worth eating in my opinion.)

Note: I used 1/2 cup of maple syrup and I don't think it was too sweet. (Remember, I don't like sweet stuff; 1/2 cup isn't a lot given how much batter you're making.) I forgot to add baking powder. Oops, the cookie and the cake stayed really flat, as you can tell in the pictures.

Here are the stats (estimated for 15 servings of the "full" not halved recipe):

Not bad on the Iron, Vitamin A, or Calcium (for a sweet treat).

Here's the recipe 1/2'd (in case you aren't feeding 2 adults plus 3 growing, active, and very hungry girls or the equivalent).

2 cups sweet potato puree (1 can)

3/4 cup oat flour

1/4 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)

1/4 cup flax (made into a really big flax egg with 1/3 warm water)

1/6 - 1/4  cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon Organic Raw Cacao Powder 

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/8-1/4 teaspoon clove 

1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

A gratuitous shot of the cans of sweet potatoes.

The "final" recipe for bars (9/28/2013) (I need to take a picture of bars from this recipe... the other pictures are of the first round.)

4 cups sweet potato puree (2 cans)

2 cups oat flour

1/2 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)

1/2 cup flax 

1/3 - 1/2  cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons Organic Raw Cacao Powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon clove

3 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

(The most important ingredient)

~2/3s a cup of chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients (oat flour, flax, cacao powder, ginger, clove, cinnamon, allspice, soda, powder, salt) then add sweet potatoes, almond butter an maple syrup. If the recipe seems too dry (mix well before you decide) add a splash of water or non-dairy milk.  

Bake at 350 for ~40-50 minutes. I used my 9 x 11 pan lined with a sil-pat and had to put another sil-pat in with a little on it.  I need to get something like this!

Halve the recipe if you want!

A hearty cookie

I found the inspiration for this recipe over at Oh She Glows. It looked fabulous, but I knew I had to make some changes. (I don't like coconut, I don't use coconut oil in my cooking, and they seemed like they might be a little sweet.)

DRY INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, blended into oat flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal or almond flour
• 1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup of flax
• (If you like coconut, add some--up to 1/4 cup shredded. I don't like it and I didn't add it.)

WET INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup "drippy" raw almond butter (or other all-natural nut butter)*
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup pure maple syrup (I used 1/3 cup in the first batch I made and 1/4 cup in the second batch. I liked it both ways and will stick with just 1/4 cup.)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• about 1/2 cup of water to achieve the right thick cookie texture in the batter (I have no idea how much I added, but I don't think I added more than 1/2 of a cup, but in case you need more, feel free. The batter should be VERY thick and hard to mix by hand, but it shouldn't be "dry.")

The most important INGREDIENT**

• 1/3 cup mini dark chocolate chips (or finely chopped chocolate) (or more!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with silicone baking sheet.
2. Grind the cup of oats into flour
3. Very coarsely grind the pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds--I did this because I don't like big seeds in cookies. I really like the effect!
4. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.
5. Add the wet ingredients all at once EXCEPT the water. Add small amounts of water at a time (maybe a tablespoon or two) 
6. Add the "most important ingredient" (you could add dried blueberries--if you're using dried blueberries, add a little cinnamon to the dry ingredients in step two (I'd use a teaspoon or two--this is my next experiment).
7. Portion small balls of dough (just smaller than golf balls) onto the baking sheet, and pat them down. We made 17 cookies, but only 15 would fit on the baking sheet so we ate two in batter form.  (Vegan cookies are AWESOME 'cause you can eat them raw!)
8. Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes. I have no idea how long I actually had mine in the oven, but I'm guessing around 12 minutes. I just kind of patted them on top until they felt cookie-like.

Cookie RePort

3 out of 5 of us loved this cookie (my husband, my oldest daughter, and me)! My vegan who doesn't like vegetables didn't like the cookie; she was suspicious when I offered her cookies for breakfast. (I originally called these "breakfast cookies" but later decided they should be "hearty" cookies since you can eat them anytime!) My vegetarian (youngest daughter) deemed it "okay" and she ate one. We'll see if she comes back for more. Note, I don't think this cookie will travel very well as it's a pretty fragile cookie.

Notes

*I didn't have any almond butter so I tried to make my own in the vitamix. Every site I read on the web said it took a lot of patience to make almond butter in your vitamix. I should have listened as I wasn't feeling particularly patient. After about 5 minutes, the almonds were a very fine flour, and just starting to get "oily," but I was having to stop the blender and stir them every few seconds--this wasn't working for me. I added a little water to the flour and blended for a few more minutes and called it "good enough for cookies." Indeed, it was good enough for these cookies as the cookies were very tasty. I now have to decide if I'll use (store-bought) drippy almond butter (and be tempted to eat it on other things) or just make more of my clumpy homemade mess.

**If you hadn't guessed, we love chocolate around here! I am excited to try these with dried blueberries and will report back when I get around to it.

I was so excited to modify this recipe that I got up early on Saturday morning to do so. My husband was surprised when he heard the blender going before 8 am, but delighted by the cookies!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies or bars.... your choice!

You may remember how much I enjoyed the pumpkin bars that I modified--or maybe you couldn't tell that I made that recipe about 6-8 times in one month and I was usually doubling it. 

Recently, I found this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and I couldn't stop thinking about that idea. It reminded me of my beloved pumpkin bars, but it seemed like I could take cookies with me more easily than my modified pumpkin bars that were so moist and required a refrigerator. I knew I had to change the cookie recipe because 1) it wasn't vegan, 2) it had a lot of sugar, and 3) it had a lot of butter. When I read it, I thought, "I can fix it!"  Here's what I did:


Dry Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp clove
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup flax

Wet Ingredients 
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup water


And finally
1/3 cup (or so) chocolate chips (optional, but it's sad not to add these!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl.
Mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add them together, and pour in chocolate chips at the end.  The cookie batter will be very thick and hard to stir.  

Shape into cookies or bars ... I made mine into approximately1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles, so kind of bar-like. The recipe made about 30 of them. They were pretty big and thick; I baked them for about 12-15 minutes. They are hearty and not very sweet--just the way we like desserts and treats.

My new favorite chocolate

 
(Potential new favorite chocolate bar)

We try to eat pretty healthy around here, but we do love our chocolate. The vegans here all eat dark chocolate (of course), and the others usually eat dark. I used to have a favorite chocolate, but they stopped making it. They still market a chocolate under the same name, but it's not the same formula and it's not nearly as good. The picture below shows the old packaging and the old formula inside.  I did love that chocolate. Alas. It's taken me a few years and lots of sampling to find something else I like (see photo above). I stuck with the process as I had faith that someday I would find love again. (Heh.)

I've now sampled a little over a serving size of the new chocolate (see above) and I love it. From the very first little square I ate, I was intrigued. One thing, I dislike it when there is too much vanilla in a chocolate bar. The new bar, the Madecasse 80%, doesn't have any vanilla.

Here's a review from a NYT's blog of it; here's a link to the company who makes the bar.  Former peace corps members started the company to try to do more for Madagascar.  I'm going to be reading more about the company and their products. P.S., we'll do some serious tasting, soon!  Note, I was in no way compensated for this review and I bought the chocolate myself. 

Old favorite that isn't made anymore